The Economy Continues to Take Its Toll on Jobs for New Law Grads

Regardless of the impressive statistics that law schools may report, there are now fewer jobs than ever available for attorneys, particularly for new graduates of law school, with the deficit between graduates and jobs estimated at 15,000 each year.[1]  Typically, law students interview during the fall of their second year of law school for an internship at a law firm to take place the following summer.  In the past, law students at high-ranked schools had their choice of internships at multiple law firms, worked at one of those firms in the summer, and then received an offer at the end of the summer for permanent employment after graduation.  Now, however, there are fewer opportunities for students at each of these stages in the employment process.

First, law schools saw fewer firms come to their campuses for on-campus interviews of their second-year students.  In 2009 as compared to 2008, over half of responding law schools "saw a decrease of 30% or more in the number of employers coming to their campuses . . . .  Half of the employers [reduced] the number of schools they visited last year by 40% or more.  One in five firms cancelled on-campus interviewing altogether last year."^[2]  Even the second-ranked school in the country has been significantly affected: Harvard Law School saw a 20% reduction in firms participating in on-campus recruiting in 2009.^[3]  Firms that still showed up on campuses conducted fewer interviews and made fewer offers: top-tier schools like NYU and Northwestern have reported interviews decreased between a third to a half, and lower-ranked schools saw even more drastic drops.^[4]  From those interviews, "even fewer offers will be extended, said Howard L. Ellin, the chairman of global hiring at Skadden, Arps, because many firms are interviewing students for slots they may not fill."^[5]  Offers of permanent employment to the lucky few who were hired as summer associates decreased as well, from 90% in 2008 to 69% in 2009, the lowest rate The Association of Law Career Professionals (NALP) has on record since it began tracking offer rates in 1993.^[6]  NALP reports that only 10 of the 300 firms surveyed made offers to third-year students in 2009.^[7]  Even an offer of employment does not mean a student is safe, as more than 60% of 2009 graduates who had offers of permanent employment at large firms had their start dates deferred, with "between 3,200 and 3,700 new attorneys ... delayed beyond Dec. 1," ^[8] as opposed to a traditional September start date.  Overall, each step in the employment process has seen drastic reductions: there were fewer firms conducting fewer interviews, extending fewer summer internship offers, extending far fewer permanent employment offers, and then deferring those who received permanent offers.

[1] Ibid.

^[2] Karen Sloan, "Summer Associate Offers Hits 17-year Low," The National Law Journal, March 2, 2010, http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202445314748&Summer_associate_offers_ hits_year_low.

^[3] Elias J. Groll, "Tough Times for Harvard Lawyers," The Harvard Crimson, September 30, 2009, http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/article/2009/9/30/firms-law-school-associates/.

^[4] Gerry Shih, "Downturn Dims Prospects Even at Top Law Schools," The New York Times, August 25, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/business/26lawyers.html?_r=1.

^[5] Ibid.

^[6] Sloan, "Summer Associate."

^[7] Ibid.

^[8] Sloan, "Summer Associate."

Building a Better Legal Profession (BBLP) is an organization based at Stanford Law School.   BBLP is a national grassroots movement that seeks market-based workplace reforms in large private law firms. For more information, visit BBLP's Web site at www.betterlegalprofession.org.